Biography « Evan Davis Biography This is a 367 word biography. Feel free to download, reproduce and edit this material. Evan Davis is a presenter of the BBC2 current affairs programme Newsnight, a role he began in September 2014. From April 2008 up to then he was a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 . He is also well-known as the presenter of the BBC2 business reality show Dragons Den. And on Radio 4, he hosts a weekly business discussion programme The Bottom Line. As well as serving these regular programmes, he also takes an active role in one-off projects on BBC television and radio. Most recently he explored the economic divide between London and the regions in Mind the Gap, broadcast in March 2014. That followed from 2012’s Built in Britain on the UK’s infrastructure and engineering challenges. In 2011 he presented Made in Britain, a three-part BBC2 series with an accompanying book on how the country pays its way in the world.

In 2011, Evan was also one of a number of journalists involved in a BBC1 Panaroma special called Breaking into Britain, a moving account of the journeys migrants take to get into Europe and the UK. Prior to the Today programme he was the Economics Editor of the BBC, the most senior economics reporter in the corporation. He was promoted to that role after working as an economics correspondent for the BBC and as economics editor of the Newsnight programme on BBC2 in the 1990s. Before joining the BBC in 1993, he was an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and at the London Business School. He has written numerous papers, articles and newspaper and magazine columns as well as the book, Public Spending, (published by Penguin in 1998). He is also a co-author of the Penguin Dictionary of Economics and the New Penguin Dictionary of Business. He studied at St John’s College Oxford (1981 to 1984) and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1986 to 1988). In the last year, Evan has won numerous awards.

He was the Political Studies Association broadcaster of the Year; he won a bronze Sony award as Speech Broadcaster of the Year and the Made in Britain programme won the Harold Wincott Foundation Business Television Programme of the Year award. TO SEE WHAT OTHERS SAY For a potentially less flattering biography (and a potentially less accurate one too)… you can read the “Evan Davis” Wikipedia entry here . Or you can read this Miranda Sawyer Q&A in the Observer, May 2011. For some comments on Dragons Den, try this . PHOTO DOWNLOADS & USAGE If you need a photo, you may download and use the ones in the sidebar of this page as long as… they not amended; are not sold or part of a publication that is sold; are not included in a print run of more than 5,000 copies; and are not used to imply endorsement of any kind. A photographer credit should be included if they are produced at anything greater than passport photo size. More photos are available from the BBC Press Office. For high-resolution versions of the photographs, click on them to open a copy in a new window. Photo 1 taken by Peter Searle . Photos 2 & 3 taken by Clare Muller .

Photos 4 & 5 taken by Chris Floyd . For a 50-word Evan Davis - RSA Sign in Evan Davis Evan Davis is a presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, a role he took up in April 2008. He is also well-known as the presenter of the BBC2 business reality show, Dragons Den. And on Radio 4, he also presents a weekly business discussion programme, The Bottom Line. As well as serving these regular programmes, he also takes an active role in one-off projects on BBC television and radio. In 2011 for example, he presented Made in Britain, a three-part BBC2 series with an accompanying book on how the country pays its way in the world. In 2011, Evan was also one of a number of journalists involved in a BBC1 Panaroma special called Breaking into Britain, a moving account of the journeys migrants take to get into Europe and the UK. In 2012, he has been involved in a two part BBC2 series on infrastructure in the UK. For the six and a half years prior to working on the Today programme he was the Economics Editor of the BBC, the most senior economics reporter in the corporation.

He was promoted to that role after working as an economics correspondent for the BBC and as economics editor of the Newsnight programme on BBC2 in the 1990s. Before joining the BBC in 1993, he was an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and at the London Business School. He has written numerous papers, articles and newspaper and magazine columns as well as the book, Public Spending, (published by Penguin in 1998). He is also a co-author of the Penguin Dictionary of Economics and the New Penguin Dictionary of Business. He studied at St John’s College Oxford (1981 to 1984) and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1986 to 1988). In the last year, Evan has won numerous awards. He was the Political Studies Association broadcaster of the Year; he won a bronze Sony award as Speech Broadcaster of the Year and the Made in Britain programme won the Harold Wincott Foundation Business Television Programme of the Year award.

BBC broadcaster Evan Davis presents his final Today programme on Radio 4 By James Gill Friday 26 September 2014 at 10:16AM Evan Davis will be enjoying a long lie-in this weekend, after making his final early morning appearance on Radio 4's Today programme. The presenter has left the show after it was announced earlier in the year that he would be taking over from Jeremy Paxman on BBC2's Newsnight. While remaining admirably professional for most of this morning's programme, Davis ended with a well-timed stumbled sign-off, telling listeners, "Have a great night... day." Fellow presenters paid tribute to the 52-year-old's time on the programme, prompting Davis to remind them, "I'm only going half way across the third floor!" Davis will begin his new job at Newsnight almost immediately, stating on Twitter that he will be making his first appearance on the BBC2 late-night current affairs programme this Monday, 29th September.

The newest Radio 4 Today presenter, Mishal Husain, paid a tongue-in-cheek tribute to her fellow Today presenter, revealing the "golden rules" she had learned from Davis, including the sage advice, "Know what sex Lady Gaga is." The full segment is available below. Davis said of his time on the flagship current affairs show: "It has been such a privilege to work here. You get to interview such interesting people. I've had the Dalai Lama to Jay Z. "I tell you what: this programme is not about the presenters," he added. "Justin [Webb, fellow Today presenter] and I know this extremely well, because I frequently get tweets and emails that demonstrate people have completely confused the two of us." Farewell @EvanHD . You (and your spacesuit) will be missed! #r4today pic.twitter.com/3BM4JqbB5P Evan Davis Interview - RUComingOut RUComingOut Evan Davis Writer / Economist / Journalist / Presenter Evan Davis is a presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, a role he took up in April 2008. He is well-known as the presenter of the BBC2 business reality show, Dragons Den.

On Radio 4 he also presents a weekly business discussion programme, The Bottom Line. For the six and a half years prior to working on the Today programme Evan was the economics editor of the BBC, the most senior economics reporter in the corporation. He previously served as an economics correspondent for the BBC and as economics editor of the Newsnight programme in the 1990s. Before joining the BBC in 1993, he was an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and at the London Business School. Evan spoke to RUComingOut.com founder Wayne Dhesi. Have you always been open about your sexuality in regards to your career and your public profile? I never really mentioned being gay for the first two years after joining the BBC. It was around the time I joined Newsnight in 1997/1998 that I decided I should definitely be publicly gay. It wasn't a courageous choice, it just felt to me that it was going to be slightly better for me to control the process of coming out by being up-front about it. Around this time Gay Times asked me if I wanted to do an interview and I jumped at the chance. The climate was always going to be very favourable for me.

I never expected any kind of backlash. "I've never had any negative reactions to being gay at work. Media land is very gay friendly - there's no question about it." The fact that I am gay comes up in interviews with magazines and newspapers pretty much all the time. However, I'm always very keen that I don't want it to be the main feature. I have said before that I want to be a seen as a journalist who happens to be gay rather than a gay journalist. I'm not at all embarrassed about being gay, it's just that I don't particularly want the first or only thing that people associate me with to be that I'm gay. I think most people know and I'm very happy with that. I've never made a big issue of it. It was already really out there before I became better known on Today or Dragon's Den, therefore I never really had that big moment where I had to sit down and say, "I'm gay and I've been hiding it for the past 15 years", or anything like that. I don't think that I've ever been famous enough for any tabloid to be really interested in me, so I've never had the public coming out moment.

The fact that it has always been out there means that the fact I'm gay has never been a revelation. "The tabloids actually seem more interested in asking me if I have any piercings or tattoos!" When did you first realise that you were gay? Was it a particularly difficult or easy time for you? "I agonised over coming out to myself. I was pretty tortured by it." I had a feeling that I might be gay just around and after puberty. For a couple of years I was tortured by that and tried hard to suppress any such desires I had. Then around the time I was doing my O-levels at about 15 or 16 I spoke to someone about the feelings I was having and he said that I should just enjoy them and shouldn't deny them anymore. I realised that when you do that and let yourself think about them, they're nice rather than horrible. That conversation was really helpful. I suddenly decided not to fight it anymore and decided that I was going to allow myself to welcome and enjoy the gay feelings I was having. It was like the flicking of a switch - I was no longer tortured. It was that quick for me - I simply decided not to fight the feelings any longer.

For a year or so after that, I assumed I was bisexual because I had some feelings for women while I was struggling to suppress the homosexual feelings I was also having. But by the time I had gone to university I realised the feelings I had for women had been completely overtaken by those I had for men. So the final stage was when I was able to feel comfortable self-identifying as gay. How long after that point of self-realisation did you start to come out to those close to you? At university some people knew I was gay and I think a lot of people suspected, however I wasn't out at all. After university when I was working in London I had a boyfriend but we weren't out with our relationship. It wasn't until I went to college in America that I came out and told everybody. In the States I had a friend, he was my best friend, and he was gay. We had been friends for about three months and we had never had 'that' conversation. When he came out to me, as a measure of how secretive I was about being gay, I still didn't come out to him. I did subsequently tell him though!

I spent a summer in Los Angeles after this and had a boyfriend there who introduced me to his friends and parents and after that I was basically very open. "Once I had come out to everyone in the States I decided that I needed to tell my parents." I returned home from America in September and said to myself that I would tell my family by Christmas. Lunchtime arrived on Christmas Day and I still hadn't done the deed, so to stay true to my self-imposed deadline I told them. I had already broken the news to one of my brothers during the drive to my parents the day before. In the car I told him that I was going to tell Mum and Dad something very important about myself and asked him if he could guess what it was. Without much hesitation he said, "You're gay." I told him that he was right and he suggested that I tell my parents in exactly the same way that I'd just told him and I took his advice. "So as we were all sat around after lunch on Christmas afternoon, I told my parents that I had something important to tell them and asked if they could guess what it was." My parents didn't guess, but my brother who I had told the previous day in the car did.

He pretended he didn't already know and said, 'You're gay' - the second time he's guessed in as many days! It turned out to be a very helpful intervention because it meant that I didn't actually have to say those words. It certainly made things a bit easier for me. My other brother, who I'm convinced had already been told, managed to lighten the mood with the wry quip 'Thank God you're not black!' I wouldn't say that my parents were negative in their reaction; it was more that they were shocked that they hadn't guessed. It obviously came completely out of the blue to them. They were clearly taken aback but the next morning they were totally supportive, very lovely about it and have been ever since. Looking back on your experiences of coming out, would you have done anything differently? I didn't come out until I was in my mid-twenties which meant that my parents missed out on the opportunity to meet boyfriends and to be part of that aspect of my life for all of those years. If I had managed to tell them when I was 18 they could have been a part of it too.

"Looking at it now I think it would have been better if I'd have levelled with my parents when I was thinking I might be gay. It would have invited them to be part of the journey that I was on." The longer that you leave telling people, the harder it gets. You end up having to break two bits of news if you leave it too late; the first being that you're gay and the second that you have been leading a double life for quite some time. If you can tell people earlier then they're never going to feel that they've missed out on something that has been important to you for some years. Obviously it depends on the reaction you think you're going to get from people, but I'd say that if you're pretty certain that you'll tell them one day, you may as well make it sooner rather than later. It doesn't get any easier to do the more time you leave it. What other advice would you have for people who are considering coming out? I personally think it's important to avoid jumping on people who might say something tactless. Clearly, bullying and intimidation is a completely different kettle of fish and should never be simply ignored, but you don't want to become the language police or anything like that.

You want people to feel relaxed and not to feel that they need to tread on egg shells. I think that the more casual you are when you come out the better the reaction will, particularly in regards to coming out to colleagues at work. When you start a new job, speak and act as though everybody already knows. So you don't necessarily tell people, you just say, "My boyfriend and I went to a movie on Saturday." People will be relaxed about it if you're relaxed about it. When you're too heavy about these things or too sensitive, you can create a vibe that makes others more self-conscious about it than they ought to really be. If you project an expectation that there may be some negativity you will create the negativity that you're afraid of. "If you just expect that everyone will be cool with it, then it's much more likely that this will be the outcome. Obviously this isn't an absolute fixed rule of thumb but it is generally how I've found it to be." RUComingOut.com © March 2013 Evan Davis joins BBC Radio 4's Today. | Media | The Guardian Organ Grinder Evan Davis joins BBC Radio 4's Today.

Not only is it the dawn of a new day, it is also the dawn of a new era on Today. Evan Davis makes his full time presenting debut on the BBC Radio 4 flagship. Monday 31 March 2008 11.33 EDT First published on Monday 31 March 2008 11.33 EDT Share on Messenger Close It is Today's big day. The BBC's former economics correspondent, Evan Davis, joins the flagship Radio 4 programme as one of its regular presenters. Davis has guest presented on Today before, of course, but today is his debut in his full-time role . And I will be listening - and writing about it - here. Everyone loves Davis, as John Crace wrote in today's Media Guardian . I'm not sure it's got anything to do with his presenter's role on BBC2's Dragon's Den. In fact, I like him in spite of that, not because of it. I like Davis because he helps makes economics interesting. When he starts talking, you want to listen. And as someone who prefers waking up to the news on BBC Radio Five Live than BBC Radio 4, let's hope he manages the same on Today.

The Sun described Davis as a cross between "Gollum and a needy vicar", while a blogger on a social networking site, as a Guardian leader reported , gushed that he was "so lovely I want him for a novelty key ring". One thing's for sure - now that he's on the radio there will be fewer questions about his haircut and rather more about his interviewing technique. Join me here from 6am - no, really - or wait until you arrive at work and look back with me on his first day in the job. Unless, of course, his recruitment to Today was an elaborate April Fool's joke, in which case this blog will be rather shorter than I anticipated. 6am update. And they're off! Yes, Evan D really is on Today (it's not an April fool). He shares presenting duties with - who else? - John Humphrys. But who will be fired? Oh no, wrong show. Coming up on today's Today: "An evening with Socrates. Would you like to join him for dinner?" Do I have to answer now or can I look at Google first? 6.11am update."It is eight-ish minutes past six," says Evan.

Perhaps I should call him Davis, I have never met the man after all. Eight-ish? I'm not sure that cuts it - is it eight minutes past or not? Listeners need to know these things at this time of morning. Kids to feed. Trains to catch. Blogs to write. Eight-ish? What if it's actually nine minutes and I'm running late? Or seven and I could have had another minute in bed? 6.25am update. Greg Wood's doing the business. I mean, he really is doing the business - reading the business news. Frankly, it's been a low key start for the D man (that's better), apart from a stumble in the newspaper round-up over a Daily Telegraph story about Lord Sainsbury. More importantly, I wonder who brought in the pain au chocolates? 6.37am update. @ tomcasagranda. Davis won't cut it? Aw, come on, give him a chance. Radio 4 has a big audience - an average weekly reach of 9.3 million, in fact - but it is also an ageing one, and Davis is one way of getting younger listeners tuning in. Humphrys can't last forever. Can he?

6.42am update. Time for the second newspaper review in 20 minutes. The first hour of Today really is the warm-up for the main event, beginning at 7am and climaxing, occasionally, with the big 8.10am interview. I wonder who will be doing that? They're actually reviewing some of the SAME stories. Maybe most people don't listen for more than 10 minutes at this time of day. Maybe it's just me. In the whole country. In the whole world. 7.02am update. @ sixthcookiemonster - good to have you on board! If you are considering writing a blog about this blog, please do send me a link. Maybe Evan Davis will blog about this blog in his blog. When he gets a minute, obviously. 7.10am update. Here's Robert Peston! Except it's a pre-recorded news report, so there is none of the guilty pleasure which can occasionally be gleaned from one of his live two-ways. Maybe later. 7.14am update. Here's Peston! Live! Talking with Greg Wood, about UBS. Actually, that was all reassuringly straightforward.

I'm trying not to sound disappointed. I quite like Peston - I find him soothing, in the style of an Indian head massage. Unrelated news: someone has just used up ALL the hot water. 7.16am update. @ JanineG - it was a pre-record followed by a live two-way followed, in about an hour's time, by an aural exploration of the paso doble. 7.32am update. Today gold! Harriet Harman has been pictured in today's Daily Mail wearing a bullet proof vest on the streets of Peckham. The Mail, as you would imagine, has had lots of fun with this, and Harriet is not happy. "It's an outrageous story from the Daily Mail!" says Harman. "I was going out and about with the neighbourhood police team... they hitched on their stab vests and they gave me and my assistant one to wear. It's almost like going to a meat factory and they give you a white hair net." Er, not really, says Humphrys. "Don't give credence to what the Daily Mail has done!" pleads Harman. "It's not the Daily Mail," says Humphrys, pointing out that the picture is on Harman's own website.

Harman's having none of it, suggesting the Mail has been "purposefully malicious and misrepresentative". The very thought. Davis, you imagine, is sitting back and watching a master at work. 7.38am update. Does this explain, by the way, why the Harman story was the only one to be included in both newspaper round-ups in the first hour of the programme? Repeat the story enough and the MP is bound to ring up sooner rather than later! Perhaps not... 7.44am update. Davis takes centre stage for the first time, talking economics and immigration with Lord Wakeham. Solid as ever, squeezing in his first pop-cultural reference of the day. "It's a bit like Premier League football, isn't it...." And the big 8.10am interview will be about.... Immigration. Time for another newspaper round-up. Of course it is! Bet Harman doesn't make this one. 7.50am update. Ah, a bird story! This is more like it. The RSPB is apparently worried that migrant birds are outstaying their welcome and threatening native species such as the sparrow, whose numbers have long been in decline.

I caught a little of the dawn chorus out of the bathroom window this morning. But this blog is supposed to be about Davis, so I'll stop there. It's a wonderful sound, though. Good for the soul. 7.51am update. @ MattWells... the cheque's in the post... probably. In case you missed it, the RSPB is considering a mass "bird catch" to send lazy migrant birds back to where they came from. Possibly via Heathrow's Terminal Five. 8.12am update. It's the 8.10am interview! It's about immigration! It's with immigration minister Liam Byrne! And it's being conducted by... John Humphrys. Gah! Wonder who's more disappointed - Davis or Byrne? The new era of Today comes juddering to a halt. For 10 minutes or so, at least... "With respect, minister..." says Humphrys. He means it, he really does. 8.22am update. The BBC might be banned from Zimbabwe - but John Simpson is there! Unfortunately the BBC world affairs editor's undercover efforts are not matched by the quality of the phone line.

Was it just me, or did Simpson sound ever so slightly amused to be saying hello to Davis on Today? Perhaps he is just pleased for him. 8.34am update. Since Matt Wells pointed out the likelihood that the RSPB story was an April's Fool, I've begun to suspect that EVERY story is an April Fool. It is utterly unnerving. What a shame Davis was not given the 8.10am interview. The economic impact of migration was surely right up his street, unlike the GM food chat he is working through at the moment. Never mind. Immigration minister Liam Byrne spent far too much time laughing at Humphrys' interruptions for my liking. 8.37 update. Oh, and in case you were thinking you might have had enough Today for one day, we still haven't had that report promised at the top of the programme: "An evening with Socrates. Would you like to join him for dinner?" Well, would you? You don't get that sort of question on Five Live breakfast. 8.46 update.

@ Ilford Peach - you're not wrong, it appears Evan D did indeed get to choose the "Daily Gratuitous, Obtrusive and Embarrassing Pop (hey kidz!) Music Item" (copyright Ilford Peach). But he didn't go for the Sigue Sigue Sputnik Medvedev satellite TV mash-up, instead opting for... an interview with Brazil's culture minister, Gilberto Gil, who is also an award winning singer, guitarist and songwriter. I bet he'd join Socrates for dinner. 8.58am update. Five minutes to go and it's the big question of the day! Woo-hoo! And the D-man gets to ask it. Would it be pleasurable, er, enjoyable (whichever, Evan) to have dinner with Socrates? Apparently it's the big debate going on at the Oxford Literary Festival. I feel a tiny bit let down. "It sounds like it could be quite a heavy dinner party," suggests Davis. "It would be more BBC4 than ITV wouldn't it?" Quite so. More to the point, after his performance on today's Today, would you like to join Evan for dinner? Of course you would.

And your first question would be: "Why oh why didn't they give you the 8.10am interview?" 9.05am update. And with the 9am news bulletin, they are gone. Straight down the pub for a pint and a fry-up. It was a slightly hesitant start for Davis who wasn't given a HUGE amount to do. I wouldn't be quite so harsh as Melanie Bellamy (see below), but it clearly is a huge leap up from economics correspondent to Today presenter, and Davis won't do it in a single bound. The first day in a new job is often the easiest. The hard work starts tomorrow. Join me at 6am... no, not really. I'll just be listening instead. Thanks for all your comments.

Best moments of Evan Davis on Radio 4's Today programme - Telegraph BBC Best moments of Evan Davis on Radio 4's Today programme As the BBC broadcaster presents his final Radio 4 show before moving to Newsnight, we take a look back at some of his finest moments Former Today programme presenter Evan Davis: "I just think [drug taking] is something gay people have to watch out for" Photo: Rex Features Follow This morning Evan Davis presented his final show on Radio 4’s Today programme before moving Newsnight, where he will replace Jeremy Paxman as the anchor of the BBC Two's flagship current affairs show. His final show featured a list of Mr Davis' "golden rules" for Today presenters, which included "if you lose interest in an item, find a way to amuse yourself" and "if something has gone wrong, just carry on". He praised the "stoic and heroic" work of his team, and recalled some of his most "fantastic" experiences such as interviewing from the Dalai Lama to Jay Z. Mr Davis concluded the show with an accidental slip of the tongue when he told listeners to "have a great night" which he quickly corrected to "day".

He joined the Today programme in April 2008 after six-and-a-half years as the BBC's economics editor. Related Articles Gareth Malone creates celebrity choir for Children In Need single 25 Sep 2014 As Mr Davis presents his final show, we take a look back at some of his best moments. Downing Street complaint Mr Davis became embroiled in a row with Chancellor George Osborne in December 2012 following a post-autumn statement interview. He provoked an official complaint from Downing Street after a 13-minute interview with George Osborne, where he was accused of adopting an “unacceptably hostile” tone. Conservative MPs rounded on Mr Davis on Twitter for giving Mr Osborne a tougher time than his Labour opposite. Not knowing which sex Lady Gaga is Mr Davis said: "Women's singing is doing very well at the moment. If you look at the UK top ten, four single females are in there...plus Lady Gaga".

This episode prompted one of his golden rules for Today presenters: "Get a grip on popular culture and know what sex Lady Gaga is." Calling the Today programme a "shambles" When a guest on the show told Mr Davis he was downstairs but could not get up into the studio, the presenter said, live on air: "For goodness sake, this programme is such a shambles sometimes." Being mistaken for a relation of David Davis An American guest once asked Mr Davis: "I had dinner last night with David Davis, are you any relation?" A fiery interview with Lord Young Mr Davis sparked controversy back in October 2010 when he was accused of promoting the legalisation of cannabis. During an interview with Lord Young, Mr Davis seized on Lord Young’s remark that: “Frankly, if I want to do something stupid and break my leg or neck, that’s up to me.” When Lord Young asked: “Haven’t you ever been skiing?” the presenter replied: “So if I want to smoke cannabis, that’s up to me as well, presumably?

What principle distinguishes between me doing something dangerous that can break my neck and having a spliff?” Greenwald interview fallout The fallout between Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald and Mr Davis, after a heated interview on the Today programme about the ethics of spying disclosures, spilled onto Twitter. Commenting on the interview, Mr Greenwald said: "I love and favour adversarial interviews: but when you're only aggressive w/govt critics, not natl security officials, that's shoddy journalism". This was in November 2013, as Britain's top spy chiefs prepared to be grilled by MPs over the NSA and GCHQ spying furore, sparked by Greenwald's reports. Too many "old blokes" BBC’s Evan Davis to join Newsnight following Jeremy Paxman’s departure | Media | The Guardian Evan Davis BBC’s Evan Davis to join Newsnight following Jeremy Paxman’s departure Presenter to switch to BBC2 current affairs show after six years on from Radio 4’s Today programme The BBC's Evan Davis is to join Newsnight.

Photograph: BBC Monday 21 July 2014 06.00 EDT Last modified on Thursday 11 August 2016 07.10 EDT Close This article is 2 years old Evan Davis is switching from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to Newsnight, replacing Jeremy Paxman as the flagship BBC2 current affairs show’s lead presenter. Davis’s Newsnight move, confirmed on Monday by the BBC, ends months of speculation about who might replace Paxman, who was the show’s main presenter for more than 20 years. The BBC announced that Paxman was leaving the show in late April and he presented his final edition on 18 June. Davis, 52, will present the show three nights a week with its existing team of presenters, Kirsty Wark, Emily Maitlis and Laura Kuenssberg, remaining on the show, sharing the other two nights a week. Coming at a time when the BBC has come under pressure to put more women on air, the appointment of a man to the top job on the BBC2 show is likely to lead to further criticism of the corporation.

On the same day that the BBC announced the appointment, at the unveiling of the BBC’s annual report for the 12 months to the end of March, the BBC Trust said it should be one of the corporation’s priorities for the coming year to rectify the “continuing gender imbalance in BBC output” . Tony Hall, the BBC director general, said: “The controller of BBC1 is a woman [Charlotte Moore] likewise BBC2 and BBC4 [Kim Shillinglaw] and we will keep on hammering away at this. I see so many extremely talented women in this organisation, I have no doubt it won’t be long before many of them are sitting around the BBC executive table as they should be.” Davis, who will join Newsnight in the autumn, said: “I can’t deny that I feel terribly sad to be leaving the Today programme. I have been there for over six years and those have been some of the most satisfying of my career. That programme is put together by remarkably few people, and I can’t praise them highly enough for their professionalism and companionship.

“But at the same time, how could I turn down the offer of this role on Newsnight, treading in the footsteps of some of the best television presenters in the business? While it is a scary prospect, it will be an adventure and a challenge, and I hope the viewers will be happy with the result.” Davis, who is currently a presenter on Radio 4’s Today and fronts BBC2’s business programme Dragons’ Den, was described by director general Tony Hall as “an outstanding journalist who will do an outstanding job on Newsnight”. Hall said: “Evan is an extraordinarily clever and intelligent interviewer. I think he has a wonderful presence on TV and I have no doubt he will be a really great presenter of Newsnight.” Hall also paid tribute to Paxman, whom he said had been an “extraordinary contributor” to the BBC who had “created real moments of discomfort for politicians and others”. Davis, the BBC’s former economics editor, joined Today in 2008. He will leave the Radio 4 programme a year after Mishal Husain joined its presenting lineup, bringing to an end criticism that it did not have enough female presenters.

Newsnight editor Ian Katz, the former Guardian deputy editor who took charge of the show last year in the wake of the Jimmy Savile and Lord McAlpine debacles, said: “Evan brings a rare combination of curiosity, intelligence and mischief to his broadcasting – just the qualities I want Newsnight to be known for. “I’ve admired him from afar as a listener and viewer for years and I’m thrilled that he’s joining us to help reinvent the show where he made his name in the 90s.” His appointment solves a conundrum for the Today programme, which has been widely perceived to have had one too many presenters since Husain’s appointment last year, bringing the total number to six, along with John Humphrys, Justin Webb, James Naughtie and Sarah Montague. Today editor Jamie Angus said: “No one has done more than Evan to define the current sound of Today. All the team and our audiences will miss his endless enthusiasm and original editorial insight, and we all wish him the best in his new role at Newsnight.” The BBC said Today would continue with a rota of the remaining five presenters.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Davis's appointment ahead of Newsnight's three incumbent female presenters comes as BBC is criticised for 'gender imbalance' Published: 21 Jul 2014 BBC annual report: Trust review also highlights gender pay gap at the corporation and calls for management to present co-ordinated plan to address issues. By John Plunkett Published: 21 Jul 2014 Corporation discloses that it spent £194m on presenters and other on-air talent, against £200m the previous year Published: 20 Jul 2014 Severance payments totalling £2.76m were made to the dozen staff before director general Tony Hall’s controls came into effect.

By Mark Sweney Published: 21 Jul 2014 Evan Davis on... SpinVox - OpenLearn - Open University Evan Davis on... SpinVox Evan Davis on... SpinVox Updated Tuesday 7th April 2009 The Bottom Line presenter Evan Davies shows why gathering information is a good investment - as in the case of Spinvox. Video Read There was an important illustration of an important business point in the discussion today. It came from Christina Domecq talking about SpinVox and I was wondering why it was that she would follow this relatively niche model of turning voicemail messages into text messages when, if you’ve got voice recognition technology, you wouldn’t use it for something much bigger, doing away with keyboards and allowing people to talk into their computers. Her point was that their system is evolving, it’s learning as it goes. It’s listening to all the dialects and voices and different phrases that people are using and the system gets better and better. And her point was that it gets better quicker because it’s exposed to the multiplicity of voices through the telecoms system than it would be in other applications. The important business conclusion to draw from that is that information is important; it’s worth paying for.

And good business strategy is often not just about exploiting what you’ve got, it’s about testing what you’ve got and improving it and gaining information at every point along the line. What happened next? There were claims made by BBC News that - far from being innovative technology - Spinvox was merely paying people to transcribe all the words by hand. Spinvox denied this breached the rules of the Data Protection Act, and pointed out that they'd always been upfront that human interaction was part of the mix of approaches to transcription they used.

Question: On which radio programme has Evan Davis been a regular presenter since April 2008?
Answer: Today